World Central Kitchen COVID-19 Response

It has now been more than a year since World Central Kitchen (WCK) served our first meal in New York City in response to the COVID pandemic. At that time, we could not foresee that we were embarking on our largest food relief effort in our organization’s history. Since mid-March 2020, WCK has served more than 36 million meals in 400+ cities to communities affected by the health, economic, and humanitarian impacts of the pandemic. Through Restaurants for the People, we have partnered with 2,400+ restaurants across the United States to help prepare these meals, putting more than $152 million directly back into local businesses and uplifting an industry that has been devastated by the pandemic. Some of WCK’s recent efforts are summarized below:

• In early 2021, Los Angeles suffered a devastating surge in virus cases. It was estimated one person passed away from COVID-19 every 15 minutes in LA County, and hospitals were operating at 0% capacity. WCK ramped up our food relief efforts in the city, prioritizing overwhelmed medical facilities to deliver nourishing meals to frontline healthcare workers and providing meals to a limited number of community sites. In addition, we set up our Relief Food Truck in the parking lot of Dodger Stadium to prepare and serve meals to CORE Response staff and volunteers who have been working hard to vaccinate Californians. In total, we have served 3.8 million meals in LA.
• In January and February 2021, WCK received funding to provide meals to frontline healthcare workers in NYC amid a new horrifying wave: COVID cases had surged, and the city’s available ICU beds were at their lowest level since last Spring. We ramped up our operation to serve 30,000 meals a day to 15 public hospitals for 30 days, even battling through a snowstorm to deliver meals.
• In mid-March 2021, WCK started back up in California with the United Farm Workers Foundation to provide nourishing meals to farm workers in three counties—Kern, Ventura, and Tulare. Our first day of distribution included 1,900 meals from eight restaurants during a vaccination event for these essential workers. Since then, we have delivered more than 30,000 meals.

Looking Ahead

Our pandemic response continues where we are able. As part of our food relief efforts, we launched WCK Direct in New York City, a text-to-order program for families facing a lack of food. Our partner restaurants prepare fresh meals on demand, which can be picked up or delivered directly to households in need. WCK Direct has launched in Chicago, and we aim to expand the program to Washington, DC. With additional philanthropic support, we can continue to scale WCK Direct, which can serve as a longer-term solution to chronic food insecurity in the U.S. after the pandemic.

A second part of our ongoing pandemic response is the FEED Act, which is a bipartisan bill that aims to address two crises exacerbated by the Covid crisis: a significant increase in the number of hungry Americans and the loss of millions of restaurant jobs. The FEED Act would release FEMA funds at the state and local level to support restaurants as they prepare fresh meals to food insecure populations, allowing programs like our Restaurants for the People to expand across the country with federal support. Please see the link to WCK’s webpage on the FEED Act for more information.

Thank you for your support of WCK. We are grateful that you have joined us in nourishing communities in times of crisis and beyond, one plate at a time.

Links:

• Stories from WCK Restaurant Partners
• WCK Pandemic Response Update: 35 million meals
• The FEED Act